Obituary: Michael Jackson

Michael Joseph Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana in 1958, the seventh child of Joseph Walter Jackson, an employee at a steel mill, and Katherine Esther Jackson, a homemaker and sales clerk.

He showed an aptitude for performing at a very young age, joining his brothers' band as a back-up musician and dancer in 1964. Two years later, at the age of eight, he and brother Jermaine became lead singers of the group, which had now become known as the Jackson 5.

Having signed to Motown Records in 1968, the Jackson 5 proved an instant success, with each of their first four singles topping the US charts. Michael soon emerged as the star of the group and released his first solo album, Got To Be There, in 1972. For the next three years he balanced a successful solo career with his commitments to the family band.

The Jackson 5 left Motown in 1975 and proceeded to sign to Epic Records, changing their name to The Jacksons for legal reasons. During this period Michael emerged as the group's main songwriter, co-penning hits such as 'Can You Feel It' and 'Shake Your Body (Down To The Ground)'.

While filming movie musical The Wiz in 1978, Jackson asked Quincy Jones, the composer of the film's score, to produce his next solo record. The result was Off The Wall, the album that made him an international pop superstar. It went on to sell 19 million copies worldwide and place four singles in the US top ten, a record at the time.

However, Jackson's greatest success was to come with the release of the Thriller album in 1982. Spawning no fewer than seven international hit singles, including the US chart-toppers 'Billie Jean' and 'Beat It', it became the best-selling album of all time, a title it still holds today. Thriller's sales to date are estimated to lie between 47 million copies and 109 million copies worldwide.

Having completed his final tour with The Jacksons in 1984, and co-written charity single 'We Are The World' a year later, Jackson finally released his follow-up to Thriller in 1987. The Bad album sold 30 million copies worldwide, yielded five US number one singles and spawned a concert tour that saw Jackson perform to 4.4 million across the globe.

However, alongside his unprecedented popularity, Jackson was also becoming known for his increasingly unusual behavior. A pet chimpanzee named Bubbles became his close companion, while his appearance changed notably, with a gradual lightening of his skin color and frequent alterations to his facial features. This earned him the nickname 'Wacko Jacko' among the British tabloids.

In 1988 Jackson released his first autobiography, Moonwalk, in which he admitted to undergoing plastic surgery and revealed that he had been physically and mentally abused by his father while growing up. The same year, Jackson built his famed Neverland Ranch - at a reported cost of $17 million - on land near Santa Ynez, California.

Having renewed his record deal with Sony for $65 million - a record-breaking sum at the time - Jackson released his eighth solo album Dangerous in 1991. Although it became another blockbuster success, selling 32 million copies worldwide, Jackson would only release two further discs of new material in the remainder of his career.

In 1993 Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by Evan Chandler on behalf of his 13-year-old son, Jordan. Jackson settled a civil suit with the Chandler family for $22 million the following year, while the State closed its criminal investigation after the Chandlers refused to testify.

However, rumors of child sexual abuse continued to plague Jackson in the ensuing years, reaching a head at 2005's People v. Jackson trial in Santa Monica, California. On June 13 that year, 18 months after he had been charged with seven counts of child molestation and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent in order to commit that felony, a jury found Jackson not guilty on all charges.

In 1994 Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley, the daughter of Elvis Presley, but the pair divorced less than two years later. He married again in 1997, to Australian nurse Debbie Rowe, with whom he fathered two children, Prince Michael Jackson (born 1997) and Paris Katherine Jackson (born 1998). The couple divorced in 1999, with Rowe granting full custody rights of the children to her ex-husband. Jackson is also survived by a third child, Prince Michael Jackson II (born 2002), whose maternity has never been revealed.

Amidst rumors of financial insolvency, Jackson agreed to perform a series of comeback concerts at London's O2 Arena starting on July 13. However, on June 25 he was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles, Calfiornia after suffering a heart attack. He was pronounced dead at 2.26pm local time (9.26pm GMT) after being given CPR. He was 50.